ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by examining the status of the major Ottoman cities when, as a subject of the sultan, it was still possible to imagine being a part of an Ottoman imperial identity. Baghdad in 1850 exhibits similar characteristics to other cities of the era, though offering its own variation on Ottomanism. In terms of population, the Arabs were drawn largely from the tribal confederations of the hinterland. Roman Catholic missionaries oversaw a large Christian population, and the Muslim population was made up of both Shiites and Sunnis. The law is modeled on many such enactments already in place in the Ottoman neighborhood, such as Greece, Iran and Europe in general, but is equally reflective of a long Ottoman practice. It is novel to the extent that Ottomanism was represented as a generic civic nationalism that assumed the equality of all inhabitants regardless of religion.
